Stoned fruit has quality variations, reducing consumption. Five independent growers formed a cooperative to provide quality control and a brand name--Ripe 'N Ready--that enabled retailers to differentiate their stores and producers to differentiate the products they supplied. Consumer acceptance has been high. The issue is how to expand the concept without adversely affecting the original users of the product. Also, what new kinds of competition are they creating?
Swot Analysis of "Ripe 'n Ready" written by Ray A. Goldberg, Laura Winig includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ripe Differentiate facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Ripe 'n Ready case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Branding, Competition, Product development, Supply chain and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Ripe 'n Ready casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, increasing commodity prices, technology disruption, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, wage bills are increasing, etc
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Ripe 'n Ready case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ripe Differentiate, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ripe Differentiate 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 Ripe 'n Ready can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Ripe 'n Ready case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ripe Differentiate
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 Ripe Differentiate
Strengths Ripe 'n Ready | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ripe Differentiate in Ripe 'n Ready Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Ripe Differentiate is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Ripe 'n Ready 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ripe Differentiate in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Ripe Differentiate in the sector have low bargaining power. Ripe 'n Ready has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Ripe Differentiate to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ripe Differentiate is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Ripe 'n Ready are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Ripe 'n Ready firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ripe Differentiate to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ripe Differentiate to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Ripe Differentiate 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Ripe Differentiate has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Ripe Differentiate 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.
Learning organization
- Ripe Differentiate is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Ripe Differentiate is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Ripe 'n Ready Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Organizational Resilience of Ripe Differentiate
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ripe Differentiate does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Ripe Differentiate 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 Ripe 'n Ready HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Ripe Differentiate 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 Ray A. Goldberg, Laura Winig 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Ripe Differentiate is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Ripe 'n Ready | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Ripe 'n Ready are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Ripe 'n Ready, in the dynamic environment Ripe Differentiate has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ripe Differentiate has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ripe Differentiate 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 Ripe 'n Ready 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 Ripe Differentiate 's lucrative customers.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Ripe 'n Ready HBR case study mentions - Ripe Differentiate 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Ripe Differentiate 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Ripe Differentiate 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. Ripe Differentiate 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Ray A. Goldberg, Laura Winig suggests that, Ripe Differentiate 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Ripe 'n Ready, it seems that the employees of Ripe Differentiate 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Ripe 'n Ready 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 Ripe Differentiate has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Ripe Differentiate 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Ripe Differentiate products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Ripe Differentiate needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Opportunities Ripe 'n Ready | 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 Ripe 'n Ready are -
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Ripe Differentiate to increase its market reach. Ripe Differentiate 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.
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 Ripe Differentiate 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.
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 Ripe Differentiate in the consumer business. Now Ripe Differentiate can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
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. Ripe Differentiate can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
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. Ripe Differentiate can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ripe Differentiate 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 Ripe 'n Ready - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ripe Differentiate to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ripe Differentiate 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 Technology & Operations segment.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ripe Differentiate 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, Ripe 'n Ready, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ripe Differentiate 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 Ripe Differentiate to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Ripe Differentiate has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Ripe Differentiate to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Ripe 'n Ready case study. Ripe Differentiate can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Ripe Differentiate 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ripe Differentiate can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Ripe 'n Ready 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ripe Differentiate 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.
Threats Ripe 'n Ready External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Ripe 'n Ready are -
Increasing wage structure of Ripe Differentiate
– 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 Ripe Differentiate.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ripe Differentiate 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 Ripe Differentiate in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Ripe Differentiate 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.
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. Ripe Differentiate 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. Ripe Differentiate needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Environmental challenges
– Ripe Differentiate 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. Ripe Differentiate can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Ripe Differentiate 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.
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 Ripe Differentiate 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, Ripe Differentiate 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 Ripe 'n Ready .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ripe Differentiate is facing in Technology & Operations sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Ripe Differentiate has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Technology & Operations industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Ripe Differentiate 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.
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 Ripe 'n Ready 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 Ripe 'n Ready 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 Ripe 'n Ready 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 Ripe 'n Ready 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 Ripe 'n Ready 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 Ripe Differentiate needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
