Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation
In March 2016, Ontario-based Cara Operations, a company that operates several restaurant chains, including Swiss Chalet (present throughout Canada, except in Quebec) - acquired Groupe St-Hubert, one of Quebec's largest restaurant chains. With the acquisition of St-Hubert, Cara became the proud owner not only of its restaurants but also of its manufacturing plants and distribution centres. The purchase of Quebec's iconic rotisserie chicken chain thus opened many doors for Cara. The case describes the situation immediately following the acquisition, when CEO Bill Gregson is wondering how to optimize its impact on his company. It ends with the five options that Gregson plans to present to his board of directors: 1) allow St-Hubert to operate as an independent division at the national level, 2) use St-Hubert to introduce Cara-branded products to Quebec, 3) have Cara and St-Hubert combine locations, 4) adopt St-Hubert's procurement process for Cara brands, or 5) simply cut costs by implementing Cara's best practices and know-how.
Authors :: Alpha Daye Diallo, Russell Fralich, Andrew Papadopoulos
Swot Analysis of "Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation" written by Alpha Daye Diallo, Russell Fralich, Andrew Papadopoulos includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cara Hubert facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
increasing household debt because of falling income levels, geopolitical disruptions, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cara Hubert, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cara Hubert 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 Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cara Hubert
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 Cara Hubert
Strengths Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cara Hubert in Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Cara Hubert 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 Alpha Daye Diallo, Russell Fralich, Andrew Papadopoulos 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.
Learning organization
- Cara Hubert 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 Cara Hubert is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cara Hubert 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cara Hubert in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Cara Hubert is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cara Hubert 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.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cara Hubert digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cara Hubert 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.
Organizational Resilience of Cara Hubert
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Cara Hubert does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Innovation driven organization
– Cara Hubert is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Strong track record of project management
– Cara Hubert is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Cara Hubert in the sector have low bargaining power. Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Cara Hubert to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– Cara Hubert has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation 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.
Weaknesses Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation are -
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation, in the dynamic environment Cara Hubert has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cara Hubert has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Cara Hubert 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 Cara Hubert products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Cara Hubert needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation HBR case study mentions - Cara Hubert 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation, is just above the industry average. Cara Hubert 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation, it seems that the employees of Cara Hubert 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 bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Alpha Daye Diallo, Russell Fralich, Andrew Papadopoulos suggests that, Cara Hubert 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cara Hubert 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. Cara Hubert 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 dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation 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 Cara Hubert has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Cara Hubert 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Cara Hubert is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Cara Hubert needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Cara Hubert to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation | 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 Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation are -
Developing new processes and practices
– Cara Hubert 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cara Hubert 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cara Hubert 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Cara Hubert has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Cara Hubert to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation case study. Cara Hubert can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Cara Hubert 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. Cara Hubert 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Cara Hubert to increase its market reach. Cara Hubert 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. Cara Hubert can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Cara Hubert can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Cara Hubert can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cara Hubert 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 Cara Hubert 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 Cara Hubert 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cara Hubert 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
– Cara Hubert 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 Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation are -
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cara Hubert 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.
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. Cara Hubert 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cara Hubert has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cara Hubert 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.
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 Cara Hubert 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, Cara Hubert 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 Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation .
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. Cara Hubert needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Cara Hubert 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.
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.
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 Cara Hubert.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Cara Hubert 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.
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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cara Hubert with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Cara Hubert 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. Cara Hubert can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation 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 Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation 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 Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation 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 Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation 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 Cara Operations: Purchase of St-Hubert and Value Creation 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 Cara Hubert needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
