Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Finance & Accounting
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity
The owner/operator of Spruce Lawn Farms, a cash crop farm located near London, Ontario, was thinking of expanding his operation to include identity-preserved soybeans and a grain dryer. The farm had been in operation for 12 years and consisted of 650 acres of owned land with plans to increase this through renting neighbouring fields to 2,000 acres by 2015. Current crops included genetically modified winter wheat, corn and soybeans, but given the growing backlash against genetically modified foods in Europe and Asia, he was considering adding certified identity-preserved soybeans as well. His back-of-the-envelope calculations seemed to indicate that the venture would pay off. However, when he approached his financial institution for a loan, they were concerned about how the new venture would change the farm's financial structure.
Swot Analysis of "Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity" written by Mark B. Vandenbosch, Ron Anderson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Soybeans Spruce facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Financial management and Finance & Accounting.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity casestudy better are - – banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, geopolitical disruptions, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, technology disruption,
increasing energy prices, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Soybeans Spruce, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Soybeans Spruce 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 Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Soybeans Spruce
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 Soybeans Spruce
Strengths Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Soybeans Spruce in Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity Harvard Business Review case study are -
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Soybeans Spruce 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 Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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.
High brand equity
– Soybeans Spruce has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Soybeans Spruce to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Soybeans Spruce 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 Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Ability to lead change in Finance & Accounting field
– Soybeans Spruce 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 Soybeans Spruce in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Soybeans Spruce in the sector have low bargaining power. Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Soybeans Spruce to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Soybeans Spruce 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.
Organizational Resilience of Soybeans Spruce
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Soybeans Spruce does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Diverse revenue streams
– Soybeans Spruce is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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
– Soybeans Spruce has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Soybeans Spruce 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.
Training and development
– Soybeans Spruce has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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
– Soybeans Spruce is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Weaknesses Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Soybeans Spruce products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Soybeans Spruce needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Need for greater diversity
– Soybeans Spruce 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Soybeans Spruce 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.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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 Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Soybeans Spruce is planning to shift buying processes online.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity, in the dynamic environment Soybeans Spruce has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Soybeans Spruce 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 Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity, is just above the industry average. Soybeans Spruce 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.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Soybeans Spruce is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Finance & Accounting segment. Soybeans Spruce needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Soybeans Spruce to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Soybeans Spruce 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 - Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity HBR case study mentions - Soybeans Spruce 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.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Soybeans Spruce is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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, Mark B. Vandenbosch, Ron Anderson suggests that, Soybeans Spruce 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.
Opportunities Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity | 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 Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity are -
Manufacturing automation
– Soybeans Spruce can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Finance & Accounting segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Soybeans Spruce 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, Soybeans Spruce 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, Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity, 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
– Soybeans Spruce can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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.
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. Soybeans Spruce can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Soybeans Spruce 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 Finance & Accounting segment.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Soybeans Spruce has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Soybeans Spruce to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity case study. Soybeans Spruce can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Soybeans Spruce 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 Soybeans Spruce to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
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. Soybeans Spruce can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
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. Soybeans Spruce 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. Soybeans Spruce 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.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Soybeans Spruce to increase its market reach. Soybeans Spruce 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.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Soybeans Spruce 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 Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Soybeans Spruce 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, Soybeans Spruce is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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.
Threats Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity are -
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Soybeans Spruce 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.
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. Soybeans Spruce needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Finance & Accounting 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 Soybeans Spruce business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Soybeans Spruce 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.
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. Soybeans Spruce 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.
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.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Soybeans Spruce 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.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Soybeans Spruce can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity .
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Soybeans Spruce 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.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Soybeans Spruce has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Finance & Accounting industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Soybeans Spruce 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity, Soybeans Spruce 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 .
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 Soybeans Spruce in the Finance & Accounting sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Soybeans Spruce is facing in Finance & Accounting sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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 Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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 Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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 Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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 Spruce Lawn Farms: The IP Bean Opportunity 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 Soybeans Spruce needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
