Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off
In December 2016, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Chateau Ksara, the largest and most renowned wine producer in Lebanon, was analyzing the company's sales volume and product availability around Lebanon. To the CEO's surprise, a popular fine dining establishment in the city did not include any of Chateau Ksara's wines. Frustrated, he started wondering what could have been the reasons for the omission. Was the quality of wine giving competitors an edge in selling their brands? What position did Chateau Ksara currently hold within the wine brand landscape in its own country? How could Chateau Ksara add value to, and maintain profitable relationships with, its distribution channel partners? Marina Apaydin and Maya Christina Noujaim are affiliated with American University of Beirut.
Authors :: Marina Apaydin, Maya Christina Noujaim, Charbel Ghossan, Miguel Manglano
Swot Analysis of "Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off" written by Marina Apaydin, Maya Christina Noujaim, Charbel Ghossan, Miguel Manglano includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Ksara Chateau facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Strategy and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off casestudy better are - – customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, technology disruption, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings,
geopolitical disruptions, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Ksara Chateau, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Ksara Chateau 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 Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Ksara Chateau
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Leadership & Managing People field.
4. Making a Leadership & Managing People topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Ksara Chateau
Strengths Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Ksara Chateau in Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off Harvard Business Review case study are -
Organizational Resilience of Ksara Chateau
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Ksara Chateau does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Leadership & Managing People segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Ksara Chateau digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Ksara Chateau 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Ksara Chateau in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Ksara Chateau 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 Marina Apaydin, Maya Christina Noujaim, Charbel Ghossan, Miguel Manglano 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Ksara Chateau is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off 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.
Learning organization
- Ksara Chateau 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 Ksara Chateau is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Ksara Chateau has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Ksara Chateau to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Ksara Chateau is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Ksara Chateau is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Ksara Chateau 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Leadership & Managing People industry
– Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Ksara Chateau to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Ksara Chateau to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Weaknesses Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off are -
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off HBR case study mentions - Ksara Chateau 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.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off, is just above the industry average. Ksara Chateau 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.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Ksara Chateau 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off, in the dynamic environment Ksara Chateau has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Ksara Chateau has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Ksara Chateau 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 - Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Need for greater diversity
– Ksara Chateau 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off, it seems that the employees of Ksara Chateau 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Marina Apaydin, Maya Christina Noujaim, Charbel Ghossan, Miguel Manglano suggests that, Ksara Chateau is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off 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 Ksara Chateau has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off 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 Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Ksara Chateau is planning to shift buying processes online.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Ksara Chateau is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Leadership & Managing People segment. Ksara Chateau needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Ksara Chateau to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off | 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 Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off are -
Loyalty marketing
– Ksara Chateau 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Ksara Chateau 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Ksara Chateau 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 Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Ksara Chateau 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, Ksara Chateau is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Ksara Chateau 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Ksara Chateau can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Ksara Chateau in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Leadership & Managing People segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Ksara Chateau 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 Ksara Chateau to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Ksara Chateau can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Leadership & Managing People segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Ksara Chateau can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
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. Ksara Chateau can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Ksara Chateau can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Ksara Chateau operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Leadership & Managing People sector.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Ksara Chateau 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, Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off, 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 Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off are -
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. Ksara Chateau 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.
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 Ksara Chateau in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Ksara Chateau in the Leadership & Managing People industry. The Leadership & Managing People 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.
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.
Environmental challenges
– Ksara Chateau 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. Ksara Chateau can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People industry.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Ksara Chateau is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Ksara Chateau.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off, Ksara Chateau may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Leadership & Managing People .
Consumer confidence and its impact on Ksara Chateau 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.
Regulatory challenges
– Ksara Chateau needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Leadership & Managing People industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Ksara Chateau 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 Ksara Chateau 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 Leadership & Managing People field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Ksara Chateau can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off 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 Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off 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 Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off 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 Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off 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 Chateau Ksara of Lebanon: Local Focus Versus Global Reach Trade-Off 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 Ksara Chateau needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.