Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price
In mid-2015, the managing director of Feed Green Ethiopia Exports PLC (FGE), one of Ethiopia's leading export companies, faced a pivotal decision. FGE specialized in herbs and spices, and the price of one of FGE's major products, paprika, had skyrocketed in the past six months. As a result, FGE had sustained a massive loss. This problem had taken a toll on FGE's profitability, and the company's future was on the line. The managing director needed to mitigate this problem and prevent it from occurring again. He saw three alternatives: FGE could maintain the status quo, operate its own farm in one of two locations, or purchase its spices directly from local farmers. Maintaining the price and quality of the products and providing excellent customer service were the company's main priorities, regardless of which option it chose.
Authors :: Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Carmen Leung, Jensen Liu, Katherine Tan
Swot Analysis of "Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price" written by Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Carmen Leung, Jensen Liu, Katherine Tan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Fge Fge's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Globalization, Operations management and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price casestudy better are - – increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, geopolitical disruptions, technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
there is backlash against globalization, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Fge Fge's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Fge Fge's 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 Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Fge Fge's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Fge Fge's
Strengths Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Fge Fge's in Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Fge Fge's 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 Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Analytics focus
– Fge Fge's 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 Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Carmen Leung, Jensen Liu, Katherine Tan 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
– Fge Fge's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Fge Fge's has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Fge Fge's 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.
Ability to lead change in Strategy & Execution field
– Fge Fge's 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 Fge Fge's in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Fge Fge's 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.
Learning organization
- Fge Fge's 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 Fge Fge's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
High brand equity
– Fge Fge's has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Fge Fge's to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Training and development
– Fge Fge's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Strategy & Execution industry
– Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Fge Fge's to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Fge Fge's to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Fge Fge's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Fge Fge's has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Weaknesses Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price are -
Products dominated business model
– Even though Fge Fge's 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 - Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price HBR case study mentions - Fge Fge's 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.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Fge Fge's 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 Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price 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 Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Fge Fge's is planning to shift buying processes online.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Fge Fge's 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.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price, it seems that the employees of Fge Fge's 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Fge Fge's 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Fge Fge's is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Nicole R.D. Haggerty, Carmen Leung, Jensen Liu, Katherine Tan suggests that, Fge Fge's 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Fge Fge's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Fge Fge's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Fge Fge's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Fge Fge's, firm in the HBR case study Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price | 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 Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price are -
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. Fge Fge's 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, Fge Fge's can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Fge Fge's operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Strategy & Execution sector.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Fge Fge's 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. Fge Fge's 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.
Developing new processes and practices
– Fge Fge's can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Fge Fge's 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.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Fge Fge's 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, Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Buying journey improvements
– Fge Fge's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price 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.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Strategy & Execution industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Fge Fge's can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Fge Fge's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Fge Fge's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price case study. Fge Fge's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Fge Fge's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Fge Fge's 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 Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Fge Fge's 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, Fge Fge's is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Fge Fge's 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 Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price are -
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.
Regulatory challenges
– Fge Fge's 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 Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Fge Fge's
– 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 Fge Fge's.
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. Fge Fge's 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Fge Fge's 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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Fge Fge's 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.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Fge Fge's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
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. Fge Fge's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Fge Fge's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Fge Fge's in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Fge Fge's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
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.
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 Fge Fge's.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price 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 Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price 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 Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price 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 Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price 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 Feed Green Ethiopia Exports: Stabilizing Product Quality and Price 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 Fge Fge's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.