Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Leadership & Managing People
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business
In mid-2012, after successful years in large public companies and obtaining an MBA, middle daughter Jen, 32, is trying to decide whether the time is right for her to enter her mother and sister's small family business to grow it further. Destira, Inc. was a designer/manufacturer of gymnastics wear for girls, headquartered in California. Donna Levy founded the company in 1990, after years of making leotards for her three daughters, who were competitive youth gymnasts, and getting requests from other parents to make the garments for their own children. In 2005, when Donna's oldest daughter, Jodi, joined Destira, Donna gave her a 50 percent equity stake. Between then and year-end 2011, the pair grew the revenues from $550,000 to $1.06 million, increased the number of outlets carrying the brand, upgraded the internal accounting/operations software, and added an online direct-to-customer retail business. The case shows realistic considerations for the individual, family, and business when evaluating whether or not to commit to join the family enterprise.
Swot Analysis of "Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business" written by John L. Ward, Carol Adler Zsolnay includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Destira Donna facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Decision making, Entrepreneurship, Gender, Succession planning and Leadership & Managing People.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business casestudy better are - – increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, technology disruption,
supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Destira Donna, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Destira Donna 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 Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Destira Donna
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 Destira Donna
Strengths Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Destira Donna in Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business Harvard Business Review case study are -
Successful track record of launching new products
– Destira Donna has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Destira Donna 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Destira Donna 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business 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.
Training and development
– Destira Donna has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Destira Donna in the sector have low bargaining power. Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Destira Donna to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Destira Donna has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Destira Donna to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Diverse revenue streams
– Destira Donna is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Destira Donna 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Destira Donna in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– Destira Donna 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 John L. Ward, Carol Adler Zsolnay 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.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Destira Donna is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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.
Innovation driven organization
– Destira Donna is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Destira Donna products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Destira Donna needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Destira Donna 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 cash cycle compare to competitors
Destira Donna 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.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business, in the dynamic environment Destira Donna has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Destira Donna has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business 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 Destira Donna has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Destira Donna is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business, it seems that the employees of Destira Donna don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Destira Donna, firm in the HBR case study Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
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 Destira Donna supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Destira Donna vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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 Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Destira Donna is planning to shift buying processes online.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Destira Donna 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.
Opportunities Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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 Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Destira Donna in the consumer business. Now Destira Donna can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Leadership & Managing People industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Destira Donna can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Destira Donna 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 Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Destira Donna to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Manufacturing automation
– Destira Donna can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Leadership & Managing People 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.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Destira Donna 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Destira Donna to increase its market reach. Destira Donna 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Destira Donna is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business 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.
Buying journey improvements
– Destira Donna can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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.
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 Destira Donna 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.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Leadership & Managing People industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Destira Donna 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. Destira Donna 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.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Destira Donna 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 Destira Donna has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Destira Donna to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business case study. Destira Donna can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Destira Donna 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, Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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.
Threats Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Destira Donna with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Destira Donna 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. Destira Donna can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Leadership & Managing People 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 Destira Donna in the Leadership & Managing People sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Destira Donna can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Regulatory challenges
– Destira Donna 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.
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 Destira Donna business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
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. Destira Donna needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Leadership & Managing People industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Destira Donna 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Destira Donna 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.
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.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Destira Donna is facing in Leadership & Managing People sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Destira Donna 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 Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family Business .
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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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 Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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 Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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 Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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 Is Destira My Destiny? Whether, When, and How to Join One's Small Family 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 Destira Donna needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
