Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip
Implementing a sustainability strategy requires firms to consider economic, strategic, environmental, and community perspectives. Suitable for MBA, undergraduate, and executive learners, this sustainability case covers innovation, intrapreneurship, and strategy. An Excel carbon footprint analysis exercise (UVA-S-ENT-0112) accompanies the case; a technical note entitled, "Corporate Greenhouse Accounting: Carbon Footprint Analysis" (UV2027) is an effective complement. Frito-Lay's Arizona facility pilots a program to take its snack chip manufacturing off the grid. Decision makers discuss operating, financial, marketing, and corporate strategy as the facility calculates its carbon footprint, converts to non-fossil-fuel energy sources, and stops relying on the scarce local water supply.
Swot Analysis of "Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip" written by Andrea Larson, William Teichman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Carbon Footprint facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Operations management, Strategy, Sustainability and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, there is backlash against globalization, geopolitical disruptions, wage bills are increasing,
increasing energy prices, technology disruption, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Carbon Footprint, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Carbon Footprint 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 Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Carbon Footprint
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 Carbon Footprint
Strengths Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Carbon Footprint in Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip Harvard Business Review case study are -
Analytics focus
– Carbon Footprint 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 Andrea Larson, William Teichman 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
– Carbon Footprint is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Carbon Footprint 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 Carbon Footprint in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Carbon Footprint in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Innovation driven organization
– Carbon Footprint is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Organizational Resilience of Carbon Footprint
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Carbon Footprint does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
High brand equity
– Carbon Footprint has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Carbon Footprint to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Learning organization
- Carbon Footprint 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 Carbon Footprint is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Carbon Footprint 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 Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Carbon Footprint in the sector have low bargaining power. Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Carbon Footprint to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Carbon Footprint 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Carbon Footprint 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 Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Weaknesses Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip are -
Need for greater diversity
– Carbon Footprint 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Carbon Footprint, firm in the HBR case study Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Carbon Footprint 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 - Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip, it seems that the employees of Carbon Footprint 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Carbon Footprint is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Carbon Footprint needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Carbon Footprint to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip HBR case study mentions - Carbon Footprint takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip, is just above the industry average. Carbon Footprint 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.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Carbon Footprint 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.
Lack of clear differentiation of Carbon Footprint products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Carbon Footprint needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip 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 Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Carbon Footprint is planning to shift buying processes online.
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 Carbon Footprint supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Carbon Footprint vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Opportunities Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip | 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 Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Carbon Footprint 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, Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
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. Carbon Footprint 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. Carbon Footprint 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.
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 Carbon Footprint in the consumer business. Now Carbon Footprint can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Carbon Footprint can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Developing new processes and practices
– Carbon Footprint 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.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Carbon Footprint has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Carbon Footprint to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip case study. Carbon Footprint can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
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. Carbon Footprint can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Carbon Footprint to increase its market reach. Carbon Footprint 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.
Loyalty marketing
– Carbon Footprint 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Carbon Footprint 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.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Carbon Footprint can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Carbon Footprint operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Finance & Accounting sector.
Buying journey improvements
– Carbon Footprint can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip 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 Carbon Footprint 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.
Threats Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip are -
Increasing wage structure of Carbon Footprint
– 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 Carbon Footprint.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Carbon Footprint 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.
Environmental challenges
– Carbon Footprint 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. Carbon Footprint can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Finance & Accounting industry.
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. Carbon Footprint needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
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 Carbon Footprint in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
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. Carbon Footprint can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Carbon Footprint is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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. Carbon Footprint 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.
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 Carbon Footprint.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Carbon Footprint 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.
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.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Carbon Footprint 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 Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip 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 Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip 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 Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip 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 Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip 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 Frito-Lay North America: The Making of a Net Zero Snack Chip 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 Carbon Footprint needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
