Case Study Description of United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge
The case, set within the European organization of a giant multinational breakfast foods company, describes a launch decision for a new cereal product. As the case evolves, the decision has major strategic and organizational implications for Lora Brill, European VP. The case focuses especially on two important decisions facing Brill: Should Healthy Berry Crunch become the company's first Eurobrand and be introduced in a coordinated manner Europewide? And, from an organizational perspective, should she create Eurobrand Teams to implement her proposed Eurobrand concept?
Authors :: Christopher A. Bartlett, Carole Carlson
Swot Analysis of "United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge" written by Christopher A. Bartlett, Carole Carlson includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Eurobrand Brill facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Marketing, Organizational structure, Strategy and Global Business.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, central banks are concerned over increasing inflation, increasing energy prices, increasing transportation and logistics costs, technology disruption,
talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Eurobrand Brill, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Eurobrand Brill 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 United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Eurobrand Brill
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Eurobrand Brill
Strengths United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Eurobrand Brill in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge Harvard Business Review case study are -
Highly skilled collaborators
– Eurobrand Brill 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 United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Analytics focus
– Eurobrand Brill 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 Christopher A. Bartlett, Carole Carlson 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.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Eurobrand Brill in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Eurobrand Brill is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Learning organization
- Eurobrand Brill 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 Eurobrand Brill is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Ability to lead change in Global Business field
– Eurobrand Brill 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 Eurobrand Brill in – penetrating new markets, reaching out to new customers, and providing different value propositions to different customers in the international markets.
Digital Transformation in Global Business segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Eurobrand Brill digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Eurobrand Brill 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.
Diverse revenue streams
– Eurobrand Brill is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge 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.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry
– United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Eurobrand Brill to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Eurobrand Brill to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Eurobrand Brill 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.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– Eurobrand Brill 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 United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
High brand equity
– Eurobrand Brill has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Eurobrand Brill to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Weaknesses United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge are -
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Global Business strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Lack of clear differentiation of Eurobrand Brill products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Eurobrand Brill needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge, it seems that the employees of Eurobrand Brill 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.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Christopher A. Bartlett, Carole Carlson suggests that, Eurobrand Brill 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.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Eurobrand Brill 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.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Eurobrand Brill, firm in the HBR case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Eurobrand Brill is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Eurobrand Brill needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Eurobrand Brill to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Need for greater diversity
– Eurobrand Brill has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Eurobrand Brill has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Eurobrand Brill 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.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge HBR case study mentions - Eurobrand Brill 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.
Opportunities United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge | 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 United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge are -
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Eurobrand Brill 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, United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Leveraging digital technologies
– Eurobrand Brill 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.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Eurobrand Brill 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 Eurobrand Brill to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Eurobrand Brill can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Eurobrand Brill operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.
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 Eurobrand Brill in the consumer business. Now Eurobrand Brill can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Eurobrand Brill 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. Eurobrand Brill 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
– Eurobrand Brill can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business 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.
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 Eurobrand Brill 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.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Eurobrand Brill 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.
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. Eurobrand Brill can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Global Business industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Eurobrand Brill can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Buying journey improvements
– Eurobrand Brill can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge 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.
Manufacturing automation
– Eurobrand Brill can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business 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.
Threats United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge are -
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Eurobrand Brill is facing in Global Business sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
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 Eurobrand Brill 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 Eurobrand Brill in the Global Business industry. The Global Business 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 wage structure of Eurobrand Brill
– 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 Eurobrand Brill.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Eurobrand Brill 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 United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge .
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. Eurobrand Brill 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.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Eurobrand Brill can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Eurobrand Brill has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Global Business industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Eurobrand Brill needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Global Business 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.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Eurobrand Brill 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.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge, Eurobrand Brill may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Eurobrand Brill needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business 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 Eurobrand Brill in the Global Business sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge 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 United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge 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 United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge 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 United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge 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 United Cereal: Lora Brill's Eurobrand Challenge 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 Eurobrand Brill needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
