How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts?
Describes how the lack of incentive alignment between retailers and their vendors can lead to stockouts. Also describes various means to reduce incentive misalignment and hence stockouts.
Swot Analysis of "How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts?" written by V.G. Narayanan includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Stockouts Incentive facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Motivating people, Supply chain and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? casestudy better are - – increasing transportation and logistics costs, banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, there is backlash against globalization, technology disruption, increasing commodity prices, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion,
wage bills are increasing, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts?
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Stockouts Incentive, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Stockouts Incentive 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 How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Stockouts Incentive
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Finance & Accounting field.
4. Making a Finance & Accounting topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Stockouts Incentive
Strengths How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Stockouts Incentive in How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? Harvard Business Review case study are -
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Stockouts Incentive 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
- Stockouts Incentive 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 Stockouts Incentive is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Diverse revenue streams
– Stockouts Incentive is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? 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.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? 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
– Stockouts Incentive has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? 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 Finance & Accounting industry
– How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Stockouts Incentive to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Stockouts Incentive to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Stockouts Incentive 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 How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Stockouts Incentive in the sector have low bargaining power. How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Stockouts Incentive to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Stockouts Incentive is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Stockouts Incentive in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Digital Transformation in Finance & Accounting segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Stockouts Incentive digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Stockouts Incentive 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.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Stockouts Incentive has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Stockouts Incentive 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.
Weaknesses How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? are -
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts?, it seems that the employees of Stockouts Incentive 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? 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 How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Stockouts Incentive is planning to shift buying processes online.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Stockouts Incentive is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Stockouts Incentive 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 - How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Stockouts Incentive has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Stockouts Incentive even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Stockouts Incentive 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Stockouts Incentive products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Stockouts Incentive needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts?, in the dynamic environment Stockouts Incentive has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Stockouts Incentive has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? HBR case study mentions - Stockouts Incentive 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Stockouts Incentive, firm in the HBR case study How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Stockouts Incentive is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Stockouts Incentive needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Stockouts Incentive to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Opportunities How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? | 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 How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? are -
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Finance & Accounting industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Stockouts Incentive can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Developing new processes and practices
– Stockouts Incentive can develop new processes and procedures in Finance & Accounting 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.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Stockouts Incentive can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Stockouts Incentive can leverage digital technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the production process, customer analytics to get better insights into consumer behavior, realtime digital dashboards to get better sales tracking, logistics and transportation, product tracking, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Stockouts Incentive in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Finance & Accounting segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Finance & Accounting industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Stockouts Incentive 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. Stockouts Incentive 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Stockouts Incentive 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 Stockouts Incentive to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– Stockouts Incentive 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Stockouts Incentive 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 How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Stockouts Incentive to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Stockouts Incentive 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, How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts?, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Stockouts Incentive has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Stockouts Incentive to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? case study. Stockouts Incentive can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Stockouts Incentive 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.
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 Stockouts Incentive in the consumer business. Now Stockouts Incentive can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Threats How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Stockouts Incentive is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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.
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.
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 Stockouts Incentive in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts?, Stockouts Incentive may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Finance & Accounting .
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. Stockouts Incentive needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Regulatory challenges
– Stockouts Incentive 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 Finance & Accounting industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Stockouts Incentive 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
– Stockouts Incentive 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.
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 Stockouts Incentive business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Stockouts Incentive has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Stockouts Incentive needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Finance & Accounting 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Finance & Accounting field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Stockouts Incentive can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Stockouts Incentive in the Finance & Accounting industry. The Finance & Accounting industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? 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 How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? 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 How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? 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 How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? 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 How to Induce Retailers to Reduce Stockouts? 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 Stockouts Incentive needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
