5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants
A newcomer to Canada has the opportunity to start a Chinese restaurant in a small Canadian city. The entrepreneur needs to decide whether to invest in the project, and if so, how to finance it: using debt or equity financing. She has to evaluate the impact of the financing options on the viability of the business, her investment returns, and the financial and business risks. The case provides an opportunity for a comprehensive FRICTO analysis of capital structure, and creates tension by putting the students in a small business owner's shoes.
Swot Analysis of "5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants" written by Zhichuan Frank Li includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fricto Newcomer facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Entrepreneurship and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants casestudy better are - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing transportation and logistics costs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, wage bills are increasing, increasing energy prices,
geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fricto Newcomer, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fricto Newcomer 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 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fricto Newcomer
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fricto Newcomer
Strengths 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fricto Newcomer in 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Fricto Newcomer 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Fricto Newcomer is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Fricto Newcomer
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Fricto Newcomer does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Fricto Newcomer has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fricto Newcomer to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fricto Newcomer in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fricto Newcomer 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 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fricto Newcomer digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fricto Newcomer has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Strong track record of project management
– Fricto Newcomer is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Fricto Newcomer is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Fricto Newcomer 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 Fricto Newcomer in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Finance & Accounting industry
– 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fricto Newcomer to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fricto Newcomer to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants HBR case study mentions - Fricto Newcomer 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants, it seems that the employees of Fricto Newcomer 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Fricto Newcomer products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fricto Newcomer needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants 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 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fricto Newcomer is planning to shift buying processes online.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants 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 Fricto Newcomer has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants, is just above the industry average. Fricto Newcomer 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Fricto Newcomer has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Finance & Accounting 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Fricto Newcomer 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants 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 Fricto Newcomer 's lucrative customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Fricto Newcomer 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. Fricto Newcomer 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.
Opportunities 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants | 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 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fricto Newcomer in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Fricto Newcomer 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Loyalty marketing
– Fricto Newcomer 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fricto Newcomer is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fricto Newcomer can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Fricto Newcomer 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.
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. Fricto Newcomer can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Fricto Newcomer 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fricto Newcomer 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Fricto Newcomer 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 Fricto Newcomer to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Fricto Newcomer can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fricto Newcomer operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fricto Newcomer has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Fricto Newcomer to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants case study. Fricto Newcomer can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fricto Newcomer to increase its market reach. Fricto Newcomer 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.
Threats 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Fricto Newcomer 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.
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 Fricto Newcomer in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fricto Newcomer 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. Fricto Newcomer needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fricto Newcomer 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.
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. Fricto Newcomer 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants, Fricto Newcomer may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Fricto Newcomer with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fricto Newcomer in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fricto Newcomer has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fricto Newcomer needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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 Fricto Newcomer is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Environmental challenges
– Fricto Newcomer 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. Fricto Newcomer can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
Increasing wage structure of Fricto Newcomer
– 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 Fricto Newcomer.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants 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 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants 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 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants 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 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants 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 5 Fortune: One of Many Chinese Restaurants 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 Fricto Newcomer needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.