Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business
In September 2016, the owner of Posana Integrative Wellness, a new start-up business in Calgary, Alberta, had to plan her marketing strategy for expansion. She was planning to transform her part-time consulting services into a full-time integrated health and wellness centre. Her target market was health-conscious consumers who were open to pursuing a natural and holistic lifestyle-primarily women aged 35-65 with disposable income. She wanted to find new and innovative marketing ideas. She also needed a detailed marketing plan for her brick-and-mortar expansion in time for the planned September 2017 opening. Vicky Roy is affiliated with Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.
Swot Analysis of "Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business" written by Vicky Roy includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Posana Wellness facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business casestudy better are - – challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, geopolitical disruptions, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, wage bills are increasing, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Posana Wellness, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Posana Wellness 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 Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Posana Wellness
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Sales & Marketing field.
4. Making a Sales & Marketing topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Posana Wellness
Strengths Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Posana Wellness in Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Posana Wellness is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Diverse revenue streams
– Posana Wellness is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Posana Wellness is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Training and development
– Posana Wellness has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Posana Wellness has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Posana Wellness has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Organizational Resilience of Posana Wellness
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Posana Wellness does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Posana Wellness in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Posana Wellness are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Posana Wellness 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Posana Wellness 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 Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Posana Wellness to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Posana Wellness to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Posana Wellness in the sector have low bargaining power. Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Posana Wellness to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Weaknesses Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Vicky Roy suggests that, Posana Wellness 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 to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Posana Wellness is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Posana Wellness 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. Posana Wellness 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Posana Wellness 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Posana Wellness 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business, in the dynamic environment Posana Wellness has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Posana Wellness has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Need for greater diversity
– Posana Wellness has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High dependence on 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 Posana Wellness supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Posana Wellness vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Posana Wellness 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 - Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business 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 Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Posana Wellness is planning to shift buying processes online.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Posana Wellness 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.
Opportunities Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business | 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 Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business are -
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Posana Wellness 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 Sales & Marketing segment.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Posana Wellness 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, Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Posana Wellness 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 Posana Wellness has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Posana Wellness to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business case study. Posana Wellness can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Posana Wellness can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Sales & Marketing industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Posana Wellness can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Manufacturing automation
– Posana Wellness can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Sales & Marketing segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Posana Wellness 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 Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Posana Wellness to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Developing new processes and practices
– Posana Wellness can develop new processes and procedures in Sales & Marketing 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Posana Wellness can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Posana Wellness 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Posana Wellness can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Posana Wellness 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.
Threats Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Posana Wellness 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.
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 Posana Wellness.
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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business, Posana Wellness may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Sales & Marketing .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Posana Wellness 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 Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business .
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Posana Wellness in the Sales & Marketing industry. The Sales & Marketing 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.
Environmental challenges
– Posana Wellness 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. Posana Wellness can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Posana Wellness is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Posana Wellness 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.
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 Posana Wellness in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Posana Wellness with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Sales & Marketing field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Posana Wellness can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Increasing wage structure of Posana Wellness
– 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 Posana Wellness.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business 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 Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business 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 Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business 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 Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business 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 Posana Integrative Wellness: A Start-Up Business 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 Posana Wellness needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.