Case Study Description of Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide
In 2016, Bossard AG was a leading wholesaler and supply chain service provider for fasteners. Its business model aimed to improve the efficiency of clients' manufacturing operations by applying Industry 4.0 technologies to integrate the delivery of the highest quality screws, nuts, and bolts with logistics solutions for supply chains, and technical solutions for product designs using fasteners. Bossard's key selling point was its ability to enhance its clients' consumable parts management, thus reducing their total costs of ownership. Bossard had been successful in Europe, but found the Chinese market difficult to penetrate. The company was looking for better ways to deliver value to Chinese industrial customers. Klaus Meyer is affiliated with China Europe International Business School.
Swot Analysis of "Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide" written by Klaus Meyer, Alexandra Han includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bossard 4.0 facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Economy, Supply chain and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide casestudy better are - – supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies,
technology disruption, increasing energy prices, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bossard 4.0, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bossard 4.0 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 Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bossard 4.0
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 Bossard 4.0
Strengths Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bossard 4.0 in Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Bossard 4.0 is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bossard 4.0 digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bossard 4.0 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Bossard 4.0 is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide 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 lead change in Leadership & Managing People field
– Bossard 4.0 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 Bossard 4.0 in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Analytics focus
– Bossard 4.0 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 Klaus Meyer, Alexandra Han 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.
Organizational Resilience of Bossard 4.0
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bossard 4.0 does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Bossard 4.0 has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Bossard 4.0 in the sector have low bargaining power. Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Bossard 4.0 to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Bossard 4.0 is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bossard 4.0 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.
Training and development
– Bossard 4.0 has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide 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 Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide 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.
Weaknesses Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide are -
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Bossard 4.0 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide, it seems that the employees of Bossard 4.0 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bossard 4.0 is planning to shift buying processes online.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Bossard 4.0 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 - Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Klaus Meyer, Alexandra Han suggests that, Bossard 4.0 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.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide 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 Bossard 4.0 's lucrative customers.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide, in the dynamic environment Bossard 4.0 has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Bossard 4.0 has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Lack of clear differentiation of Bossard 4.0 products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Bossard 4.0 needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide, is just above the industry average. Bossard 4.0 needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Bossard 4.0 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bossard 4.0, firm in the HBR case study Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide | 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 Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide are -
Leveraging digital technologies
– Bossard 4.0 can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Bossard 4.0 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.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Bossard 4.0 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.
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 Bossard 4.0 in the consumer business. Now Bossard 4.0 can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bossard 4.0 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 Bossard 4.0 to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Bossard 4.0 can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Bossard 4.0 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. Bossard 4.0 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Bossard 4.0 can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Bossard 4.0 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 Bossard 4.0 has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Bossard 4.0 to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide case study. Bossard 4.0 can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Bossard 4.0 to increase its market reach. Bossard 4.0 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Bossard 4.0 can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bossard 4.0 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, Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide are -
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. Bossard 4.0 needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Bossard 4.0 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bossard 4.0 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Bossard 4.0 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bossard 4.0 is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bossard 4.0 has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Leadership & Managing People industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bossard 4.0 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.
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 Bossard 4.0.
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. Bossard 4.0 can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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 Bossard 4.0 business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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 Bossard 4.0 in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide, Bossard 4.0 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 .
Environmental challenges
– Bossard 4.0 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. Bossard 4.0 can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide 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 Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide 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 Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide 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 Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide 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 Bossard AG: Enabling Industry 4.0 Logistics, Worldwide 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 Bossard 4.0 needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.