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Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

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?

Authors :: Hau Lee, Sonali Rammohan

Topics :: Leadership & Managing People

Tags :: Financial markets, Government, Growth strategy, Risk management, Supply chain, Sustainability, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

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 - – central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, technology disruption, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc



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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 -

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.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Deforestation Cattle 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 Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.

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.

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.

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.

Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Deforestation Cattle digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Deforestation Cattle 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.

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.

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.

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry

– Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Deforestation Cattle to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Deforestation Cattle to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Low bargaining power of suppliers

– Suppliers of Deforestation Cattle in the sector have low bargaining power. Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Deforestation Cattle to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.

Ability to lead change in Leadership & Managing People field

– Deforestation Cattle 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 Deforestation Cattle in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.






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 -

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.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Deforestation Cattle is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Deforestation Cattle needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Deforestation Cattle to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

High operating costs

– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry 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 Deforestation Cattle 's lucrative customers.

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.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry, is just above the industry average. Deforestation Cattle 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.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Deforestation Cattle 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 - Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

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.

Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy

– From the instances in the HBR case study Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry, it seems that the employees of Deforestation Cattle 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.

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.

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.

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.




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 -

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.

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 Deforestation Cattle in the consumer business. Now Deforestation Cattle can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Deforestation Cattle 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, Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.

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.

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.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Deforestation Cattle has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Deforestation Cattle to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Beef in Brazil: Shrinking Deforestation While Growing the Industry case study. Deforestation Cattle can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

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.

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.

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.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Deforestation Cattle can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Deforestation Cattle operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.

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.

Building a culture of innovation

– managers at Deforestation Cattle 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 Leadership & Managing People segment.

Leveraging digital technologies

– Deforestation Cattle 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.




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 -

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.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Deforestation Cattle 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.

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 .

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 Deforestation Cattle business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

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.

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.

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 Deforestation Cattle.

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.

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 .

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.

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.

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.

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.




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.



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