Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Sales & Marketing
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around
The Locally Laid Egg Company is a family-owned company based out of Duluth, Minnesota. The company was established in 2012 as the first commercial grade pasture-raised egg company in the upper Midwest. In the first two years of operation, the company already had so much demand that it was unable to keep up. The husband and wife ownership team of Jason and Lucie Amundsen held a firm belief that people do business with like-minded people. The Amundsens contended that consumers were warming to the idea that societal values have to be part of your business and that consumers were more willing to buy from businesses that were responsible stewards of our world. The company implemented a number of green initiatives and made efforts to support the local economy. Locally Laid Eggs had partnered with Amish farmers in Iowa, Indiana, and Minnesota. The partnership was mutually beneficial as it leveraged the strong ethical farming standards of the Amish with the marketing expertise of the Amundsens. The Amish farmers were interested in raising eggs to LoLa's pasture-raised standards, distributing them locally, and selling them under the Locally Laid brand. The Amundsens were amused their Amish partners were not deterred by the sassy and unorthodox brand name, but rather saw it as an opportunity. The Amish did the work of sustainably farming eggs from pasture raised hens and Locally Laid helped them get these eggs into stores. Jason was getting concerned he was expanding too fast. In August 2014, on the company's second anniversary, he got a letter from a Pennsylvania Amish farm seeking a partnership. The letter prompted him to consider his strategy. Should he focus on his local Duluth farm and existing contracts or should he add on another contract and explore the Pennsylvania opportunity? What were his best options for longer-term sustainable growth?
Swot Analysis of "Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around" written by Rajiv Vaidyanathan, Ahmed Maamoun includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Amish Locally facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Growth strategy, Strategic planning, Sustainability and Sales & Marketing.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing, technology disruption, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Amish Locally, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Amish Locally 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 Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Amish Locally
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 Amish Locally
Strengths Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Amish Locally in Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around Harvard Business Review case study are -
Ability to lead change in Sales & Marketing field
– Amish Locally 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 Amish Locally in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Organizational Resilience of Amish Locally
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Amish Locally does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Sales & Marketing segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Amish Locally digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Amish Locally 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.
Analytics focus
– Amish Locally 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 Rajiv Vaidyanathan, Ahmed Maamoun 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Amish Locally is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Amish Locally is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Amish Locally 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Amish Locally in the sector have low bargaining power. Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Amish Locally to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Learning organization
- Amish Locally 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 Amish Locally is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Amish Locally 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 Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Diverse revenue streams
– Amish Locally is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around 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.
Weaknesses Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around are -
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Amish Locally is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Sales & Marketing segment. Amish Locally needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Amish Locally to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around, is just above the industry average. Amish Locally 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Amish Locally, firm in the HBR case study Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around 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 Amish Locally has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Need for greater diversity
– Amish Locally 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Amish Locally 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.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Sales & Marketing 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.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Amish Locally 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. Amish Locally 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Amish Locally 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around 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 Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Amish Locally is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around, in the dynamic environment Amish Locally has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Amish Locally has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Opportunities Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around | 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 Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around are -
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Amish Locally can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Amish Locally 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 Amish Locally to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Amish Locally 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.
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. Amish Locally 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. Amish Locally 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Amish Locally 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 Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Amish Locally to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Amish Locally is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Amish Locally 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.
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. Amish Locally can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Amish Locally to increase its market reach. Amish Locally 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
– Amish Locally can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Amish Locally can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Amish Locally operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Sales & Marketing sector.
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 Amish Locally 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Amish Locally 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 Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around are -
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Amish Locally has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Sales & Marketing industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Amish Locally 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around, Amish Locally 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 .
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.
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. Amish Locally needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Sales & Marketing industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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. Amish Locally can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Environmental challenges
– Amish Locally 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. Amish Locally can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Sales & Marketing industry.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Amish Locally 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Amish Locally 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 Sales & Marketing industry regulations.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Amish Locally 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.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Amish Locally will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Increasing wage structure of Amish Locally
– 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 Amish Locally.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Amish Locally 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around 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 Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around 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 Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around 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 Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around 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 Locally Laid Egg Company: No Time for Laying Around 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 Amish Locally needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
