NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads
NourishCo Beverages Ltd. (NourishCo) was founded as a fifty-fifty joint venture between one of the world's best-known companies, PepsiCo India Holdings, and one of India's most respected and trusted brands, Tata Global Beverages. The long-term corporate vision of NourishCo was to focus on the health and wellness needs of India. In May 2016, after a considerable amount of investment in product, packaging, manufacturing, and innovation, NourishCo had successfully met the objectives of its business model. The company wanted to continue its expansion nationwide. NourishCo had a distinct, low-cost, and effective business model. However, the low barriers to entry in this segment could lead to fierce competition. To retain its first mover advantage and achieve financial viability, it needed to move quickly to become a national company. How could NourishCo strike a balance between managing cash flows and expansion? Neena Sondhi is affiliated with International Management Institute-New Delhi.
Swot Analysis of "NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads" written by Neena Sondhi includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Nourishco Beverages facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing commodity prices, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
geopolitical disruptions, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Nourishco Beverages, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Nourishco Beverages 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 NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Nourishco Beverages
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 Nourishco Beverages
Strengths NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Nourishco Beverages in NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to recruit top talent
– Nourishco Beverages is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Nourishco Beverages 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 NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Nourishco Beverages is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Nourishco Beverages 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 Nourishco Beverages in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Diverse revenue streams
– Nourishco Beverages is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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.
Organizational Resilience of Nourishco Beverages
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Nourishco Beverages does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Nourishco Beverages in the sector have low bargaining power. NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Nourishco Beverages to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Nourishco Beverages 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.
Analytics focus
– Nourishco Beverages 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 Neena Sondhi 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Sales & Marketing industry
– NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Nourishco Beverages to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Nourishco Beverages to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Training and development
– Nourishco Beverages has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Nourishco Beverages in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads are -
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Nourishco Beverages 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. Nourishco Beverages 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 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 Nourishco Beverages supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Nourishco Beverages vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Neena Sondhi suggests that, Nourishco Beverages 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads, in the dynamic environment Nourishco Beverages has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Nourishco Beverages has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads, is just above the industry average. Nourishco Beverages 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Nourishco Beverages 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.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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 Nourishco Beverages has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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 Nourishco Beverages 's lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Nourishco Beverages needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Nourishco Beverages is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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 NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Nourishco Beverages is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads | 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 NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads are -
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Sales & Marketing industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Nourishco Beverages 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. Nourishco Beverages 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.
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 Nourishco Beverages 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 Nourishco Beverages 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.
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. Nourishco Beverages can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Nourishco Beverages can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Nourishco Beverages has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Nourishco Beverages to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads case study. Nourishco Beverages can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Loyalty marketing
– Nourishco Beverages 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.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Nourishco Beverages 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Nourishco Beverages is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Nourishco Beverages 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Nourishco Beverages 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Nourishco Beverages 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Nourishco Beverages 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.
Threats NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Nourishco Beverages is facing in Sales & Marketing sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Nourishco Beverages 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
– Nourishco Beverages 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. Nourishco Beverages can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
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 Nourishco Beverages in the Sales & Marketing sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Nourishco Beverages 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 NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads .
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. Nourishco Beverages needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Nourishco Beverages business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Nourishco Beverages has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Nourishco Beverages needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Sales & Marketing sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Nourishco Beverages 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Nourishco Beverages with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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 Nourishco Beverages.
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. Nourishco Beverages can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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 NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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 NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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 NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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 NourishCo. Beverages Ltd.: Making New Inroads 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 Nourishco Beverages needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.