Case Study Description of Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services
In October 2016, the chief executive officer of Bidcorp Baltics, a food services company operating in the three Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, faced a dilemma. He needed to decide whether to expand the warehouse depot in Lithuania or in another location, and whether the company should diversify into products other than fresh fish and seafood. Because the company was part of the larger Bid Corporation Limited group, headquartered in South Africa, he had scheduled a teleconference with the head office. His challenge was to present a persuasive case for the parent company's capital investment in Bidcorp Baltics. What contextually relevant factors did the chief executive officer need to consider? Caren Scheepers is affiliated with University of Pretoria.
Swot Analysis of "Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services" written by Caren Scheepers, Chantal Ramsingh includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Bidcorp Baltics facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, Operations management, Organizational culture, Organizational structure and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing commodity prices,
digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Bidcorp Baltics, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Bidcorp Baltics 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 Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Bidcorp Baltics
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Bidcorp Baltics
Strengths Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Bidcorp Baltics in Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services Harvard Business Review case study are -
Diverse revenue streams
– Bidcorp Baltics is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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
– Bidcorp Baltics is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Organizational Resilience of Bidcorp Baltics
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Bidcorp Baltics does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Learning organization
- Bidcorp Baltics 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 Bidcorp Baltics is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Bidcorp Baltics is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Bidcorp Baltics to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Bidcorp Baltics to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Bidcorp Baltics 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
– Bidcorp Baltics has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Bidcorp Baltics 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 Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Bidcorp Baltics digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Bidcorp Baltics 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.
Ability to lead change in Organizational Development field
– Bidcorp Baltics 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 Bidcorp Baltics in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Weaknesses Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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 Bidcorp Baltics 's lucrative customers.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services, is just above the industry average. Bidcorp Baltics 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Bidcorp Baltics 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Bidcorp Baltics 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development 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 star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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 Bidcorp Baltics has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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 Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Bidcorp Baltics is planning to shift buying processes online.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Bidcorp Baltics 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services, it seems that the employees of Bidcorp Baltics 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Bidcorp Baltics, firm in the HBR case study Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services HBR case study mentions - Bidcorp Baltics 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.
Opportunities Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services | 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 Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services are -
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 Bidcorp Baltics 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 Bidcorp Baltics 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 Organizational Development segment.
Loyalty marketing
– Bidcorp Baltics has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Bidcorp Baltics in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
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. Bidcorp Baltics can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Bidcorp Baltics 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 Bidcorp Baltics to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Bidcorp Baltics can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Bidcorp Baltics operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Organizational Development sector.
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 Bidcorp Baltics in the consumer business. Now Bidcorp Baltics can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Bidcorp Baltics is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Bidcorp Baltics has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Bidcorp Baltics to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services case study. Bidcorp Baltics 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 Bidcorp Baltics to increase its market reach. Bidcorp Baltics 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Bidcorp Baltics 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 Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Bidcorp Baltics to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Bidcorp Baltics 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, Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services, 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 Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services are -
Environmental challenges
– Bidcorp Baltics 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. Bidcorp Baltics can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Organizational Development industry.
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.
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 Bidcorp Baltics business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services, Bidcorp Baltics may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
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 Bidcorp Baltics.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Bidcorp Baltics 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 Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services .
Regulatory challenges
– Bidcorp Baltics 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 Organizational Development industry regulations.
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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Bidcorp Baltics has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Bidcorp Baltics needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Bidcorp Baltics 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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Bidcorp Baltics in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development 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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Bidcorp Baltics is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing wage structure of Bidcorp Baltics
– 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 Bidcorp Baltics.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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 Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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 Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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 Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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 Bidcorp Baltics: Contextually Intelligent Leadership of Entrepreneurial Food Services 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 Bidcorp Baltics needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
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