Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh
In April 2017, a college student in California was graduating with a degree in business administration with a concentration in entrepreneurship. She had been a florist for the past six years and wished to pursue her dream of starting her own flower business. Her vision was to open a flower shop where all the arrangements were uniquely designed for each customer and no two arrangements were the same. Her current employers were trying to sell their shop (Belle Fleur) and offered to sell it to her at a discount price. She had to decide whether to buy the business or start her own shop from scratch. Atul Teckchandani is affiliated with California State University - Fullerton.
Swot Analysis of "Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh" written by Atul Teckchandani, Jana Hammoud includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fleur Belle facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, there is backlash against globalization, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fleur Belle, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fleur Belle 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 Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fleur Belle
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field.
4. Making a Innovation & Entrepreneurship topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fleur Belle
Strengths Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fleur Belle in Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh Harvard Business Review case study are -
Training and development
– Fleur Belle has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh 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.
Strong track record of project management
– Fleur Belle is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Digital Transformation in Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Fleur Belle digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Fleur Belle 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.
High brand equity
– Fleur Belle has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fleur Belle to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fleur Belle in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry
– Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fleur Belle to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fleur Belle to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Fleur Belle in the sector have low bargaining power. Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Fleur Belle to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Innovation driven organization
– Fleur Belle is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh 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 Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh 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.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Fleur Belle 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Fleur Belle has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Fleur Belle 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.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Fleur Belle 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.
Weaknesses Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh are -
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 Fleur Belle supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Fleur Belle vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Atul Teckchandani, Jana Hammoud suggests that, Fleur Belle 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 Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh, in the dynamic environment Fleur Belle has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Fleur Belle 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 Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh, is just above the industry average. Fleur Belle 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fleur Belle has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh 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 Fleur Belle has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Lack of clear differentiation of Fleur Belle products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Fleur Belle needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh, it seems that the employees of Fleur Belle 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.
Need for greater diversity
– Fleur Belle has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Fleur Belle 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.
Opportunities Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh | 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 Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh are -
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Fleur Belle 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 Fleur Belle to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Fleur Belle to increase its market reach. Fleur Belle 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.
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 Fleur Belle 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.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Fleur Belle is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh 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.
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 Fleur Belle in the consumer business. Now Fleur Belle can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fleur Belle 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Fleur Belle can develop new processes and procedures in Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fleur Belle has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Fleur Belle to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh case study. Fleur Belle can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Fleur Belle in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Buying journey improvements
– Fleur Belle can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fleur Belle 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fleur Belle can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Fleur Belle 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 Innovation & Entrepreneurship segment.
Threats Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh are -
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 Fleur Belle.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fleur Belle in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. The Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh, Fleur Belle may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Innovation & Entrepreneurship .
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 Fleur Belle business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fleur Belle 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Fleur Belle with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Environmental challenges
– Fleur Belle 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. Fleur Belle can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Fleur Belle has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Fleur Belle needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship 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.
Increasing wage structure of Fleur Belle
– 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 Fleur Belle.
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. Fleur Belle needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Innovation & Entrepreneurship industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Innovation & Entrepreneurship field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fleur Belle can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fleur Belle 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.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh 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 Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh 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 Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh 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 Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh 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 Belle Fleur: Buying an Existing Business or Starting Fresh 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 Fleur Belle needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.