Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
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Case Study Description of Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry
In June 2009, Greenpeace accused the cattle industry of contributing to deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Big brands that bought beef and leather were named as silent partners to the practice. Pressure from Greenpeace and the Brazilian government led to major changes. Meatpackers Bertin, JBS, Marfrig, and Minerva, responsible for one-third of exports, agreed to stop purchasing directly and indirectly from ranches that cleared more forest than legally permitted, and committed to buying from direct and indirect suppliers that reduced deforestation to zero. Fernando Sampaio, executive director of Abiec, the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association, worked closely with meatpackers that exported beef to comply with deforestation agreements. While Abiec's mission was to grow the export sector, his members were now asked to take an active role in curbing deforestation. Progress was promising. Deforestation dropped by over 80 percent from 2004 to 2014, attributable in part to the cattle agreements. This was clear progress, since the cattle sector in the Amazon was one of the largest drivers of global deforestation. Yet, traceability of animal movements among farms and slaughterhouses was a big challenge. Some non-compliant ranches were selling to slaughterhouses without full monitoring systems. Other non-compliant ranches were selling cattle into legitimate supply chains through licensed ranches. By mid-2015, Brazilian Amazon deforestation had grown by 16 percent compared to the prior year, demonstrating that gains were fragile. How could Abiec, which represented 29 meatpackers responsible for 70 percent of slaughtering and 93 percent of exports, persuade more members to adopt a zero-deforestation policy and demand supplier compliance? Sampaio's goal of growing sales for his members while curbing deforestation was complex and required working with many beef value chain actors. Industry collaboration, traceability approaches, monitoring efforts, rancher penalties and incentives, productivity improvement efforts, impact investments, and building capabilities of indirect suppliers had produced significant changes. Yet, Abiec needed to influence its smaller members and tackle indirect suppliers - the ones often linked to deforestation. Could cattle-driven deforestation ever be contained?
Swot Analysis of "Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry" written by Hau Lee, Sonali Rammohan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Deforestation Cattle facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial markets, Government, Growth strategy, Risk management, Supply chain, Sustainability and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry casestudy better are - – increasing household debt because of falling income levels, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, there is backlash against globalization, increasing transportation and logistics costs, geopolitical disruptions,
increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Deforestation Cattle, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Deforestation Cattle 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 Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Deforestation Cattle
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Deforestation Cattle
Strengths Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Deforestation Cattle in Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Deforestation Cattle is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Deforestation Cattle has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Deforestation Cattle 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.
Training and development
– Deforestation Cattle has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Deforestation Cattle 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Deforestation Cattle 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
– Deforestation Cattle is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Deforestation Cattle 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 Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry 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 brand equity
– Deforestation Cattle has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Deforestation Cattle to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Deforestation Cattle is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Deforestation Cattle is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Analytics focus
– Deforestation Cattle 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 Hau Lee, Sonali Rammohan 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 Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry are -
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Deforestation Cattle 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Deforestation Cattle 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Deforestation Cattle 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Deforestation Cattle is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Hau Lee, Sonali Rammohan suggests that, Deforestation Cattle 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Deforestation Cattle 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry 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 Deforestation Cattle has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Deforestation Cattle products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Deforestation Cattle needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Leadership & Managing People 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.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Deforestation Cattle supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Deforestation Cattle vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Deforestation Cattle, firm in the HBR case study Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry | 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 Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Deforestation Cattle in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Deforestation Cattle can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Deforestation Cattle 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Deforestation Cattle can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Deforestation Cattle can develop new processes and procedures in Leadership & Managing People industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Deforestation Cattle 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 Deforestation Cattle to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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 Deforestation Cattle 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Deforestation Cattle 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. Deforestation Cattle 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Deforestation Cattle can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Deforestation Cattle 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 Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Deforestation Cattle to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Deforestation Cattle is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Deforestation Cattle to increase its market reach. Deforestation Cattle 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.
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. Deforestation Cattle can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Threats Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry are -
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Deforestation Cattle in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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
– Deforestation Cattle has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Deforestation Cattle needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Leadership & Managing People 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry, Deforestation Cattle may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Deforestation Cattle is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Deforestation Cattle 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 Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Deforestation Cattle 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Deforestation Cattle can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Deforestation Cattle 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. Deforestation Cattle can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Deforestation Cattle 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.
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. Deforestation Cattle needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Increasing wage structure of Deforestation Cattle
– 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 Deforestation Cattle.
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 Deforestation Cattle in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Regulatory challenges
– Deforestation Cattle 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 Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry 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 Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry 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 Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry 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 Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry 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 Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry 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 Deforestation Cattle needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.